Looking to set up an eCommerce Site?

With ecommerce continuing to grow during the recession and with trading on the High Street becoming more and more challenging, setting up an ecommerce site still makes great sense. Online sales are expected to reach £78 billion by 2010 and by 2020 the IMRG (industry body for e-retail) forecast they will account for a massive 40% of total retail.

However, making money online isn't easy; it's an increasingly competitive marketplace and online shoppers are a fickle bunch with high expectations. So, if you're considering setting up an online business, you'll need to do your homework.

With several years of ecommerce experience, the experts at Tiger Commerce can put you on the right track to making a successful business out of selling goods online. Here's our 8 Point Guide to Setting up an eCommerce Site.

Research your Product Fully and Create a Unique Offering

With mass market product segments well and truly sown up by ecommerce giants such as Amazon, you need to choose a product where you can create a niche positioning versus your competitors. This can be the product itself (e.g. exclusivity) or the wrap around service that you offer with it (e.g. guaranteed next day delivery). Pricing obviously has a key role to play online, but if your product and customer service are considered 'added value' by your shoppers then you can insulate yourselves to a certain extent against discounting.

Remember that the search engines such as Google have effectively levelled the competitive playing field for smaller online retailers because they can give priority to niche sites for niche searches. So take your time to research your product, analyse the competitive landscape and try to forecast demand.

Choose your Technology Partner Carefully

The quickest and most cost effective way to get your shop online today is via the new 'pay-as-you-go' shop software packages that are available to purchase online. These allow you to 'rent' a ready to use, fully functioning online shop with minimal or no upfront financial layout. You populate the ecommerce site with your products / services, add your shop logo / branding and you're ready to open for business. Budget on paying upwards of £15 per month for the better quality ecommerce solutions.

Make sure your ecommerce site software has all the latest, tried and test ecommerce features, is easy to navigate (for your customers) and administer (by you, the shop owner) and that the shop checkout has been designed to minimise shopping cart abandonment. Also, ensure that the technology allows you to create a good looking and credible shop front design for your online store - a small investment in professional graphic design for your online shop is well worth making.

Find the Right Online Payment Partner

To sell products or services over the internet, you will need a Payment Service Provider (PSP) integrated with your online shop to accept credit and debit charge payments. There are many PSPs to choose from, all of which charge using different criteria and different products and packages - so consider carefully before making a decision. You may also need an Internet Merchant Account (IMA) which is a special type of bank account designed to accept funds from payments made online, but banks typically require certain guarantees if you do not have a trading history.

If you have a new business and want to get trading online as soon as possible, the quickest and easiest solution may be a PSP Bureau (e.g. PayPal, Google Checkout). Bureaus work closely with partner banks to get new businesses through the risk and compliance hurdles and trading online as quickly as possible. Paypoint.net offer a complete range of online payment solutions and are Tiger Commerce's preferred choice of PSP.

Get your Act Together on Fulfilment

Put together a plan for stocking your online business and for dealing with anticipated and unexpected demand. The better ecommerce site software packages include real time stock management. The last thing you want to do is disappoint your online customers - that's a sure way to lose business. Find a delivery company that will suit your products, your customer expectations and consider the cost implications and if / how you will pass on the charges.

There are more and more delivery companies in the market so shop around. Devise your strategy for dealing with the bugbear of online shopping – RETURNS. And whatever you decide your policies to be on Delivery, Charges and Returns, make sure that you give these high visibility in your online shop for customers to easily find and read.

Sort out your Product Catalogue

Populating your online shop with your products or services can take considerable time if you have a large catalogue and if the data is not in a common digital format. Businesses often under-estimate how long this will take, especially if no product database and associated images already exist. Be realistic about target launch dates or alternatively, adopt a phased approach; launch your site with some key product lines and add as you go along.

If you don't have images for your products, avoid poor photography and employ a specialist as this will vastly improve the presentation of your website. Take time with your product descriptions and make sure your web pages really sell your products. Check to see if your ecommerce site's technology allows videos and customer product reviews as these are highly effective selling tools. Up-selling / cross-selling functionality is also an important tool.

Put Together a Marketing Plan

The success of your online business will depend on how effective your marketing is. Simply publishing your products on a website and hoping that customers will come flocking is no longer a reality in today’s competitive online market. Set up costs for internet businesses are relatively low, but you will need to allocate time and money to marketing if you want to make a success of selling online.

Make sure that the ecommerce solution you purchase allows you to market your products effectively; with promotional functionality for discounts, special offers, seasonal activities, as well as voucher codes, loyalty programmes and email marketing campaigns. Many of the cheaper ecommerce packages only offer very limited marketing functionality. You will also want to consider paid search (also known as Pay-Per-Click) to drive short term results via advertising on the search engines (e.g. Google Adwords).

Ensure your Website can be Search Engine Optimised

Ensuring your website can be found by the leading search engines, such as Google, is critical. Before purchasing your ecommerce site software, make sure that you have checked how search engine friendly it is. Basic search engine optimisation (SEO) tools such as meta tags and keywords, alt tags on images, sitemaps, and search engine friendly URLs / page titles should be included.

Ask your technology partner if they provide additional services to help you in this complex, but vital online marketing activity. Investing in SEO can reduce your reliance over the long term on more expensive online marketing such Pay-Per-Click advertising.

Get set up with an Analytics Package Right Away

Ensure you get set up with a good analytics package the day you start trading. Google Analytics comes free and will give you an excellent insight into your shop's visitor activity. This will help you to understand how your website works and whether it is doing a good job of converting visitors into buyers.

Use the insight to fine tune your online shop's content and your supporting marketing activities. Having a technology platform that tracks other forms of vistor activity is an added bonus; Tiger Commerce includes comprehensive reports for both sales and customer searches highlighting purchasing and shopping trends.

A leading ecommerce site software package, Tiger Commerce has best-in-class functionality, is easy to use, fast to set up and costs just £17.99 (plus VAT) per month.